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At Bourne's first arrival to Paris, he invites Marie to his apartment, Marie turns him down at first but later agrees after Bourne insists.

I don't understand why he would do this.

Since the fight (with police in embassy) at Switzerland suggests clearly enough that (to some degree) he's a threat to the public (though he doesn't know why). If he cares about the girl (the only person he knows), he shouldn't bring her into trouble.

Actually, Bourne remains vigilant: When Marie is about to pull her car near the apartment, he suggests she park across the street. He certainly doesn't expect good things to happen.

He speaks French/German and doesn't need a local (BTW Marie is not).

So, why does Bourne invite Marie to his apartment?

3 Answers 3

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The way I see it, there are two reasons:

  1. Because, as you said, she's the only person he knows. The only person he can trust. So, he wants to keep her close so that he's not all alone.

  2. More importantly, he knows (or at least has good reason to suspect) that she's already been drawn into the web of his adventure. He originally met her by her car, which was parked in the alley outside the embassy in Zurich. There were security cameras all over that place, and Bourne had just finished making a rather large scene to escape the building. It's well established that Bourne has an eye for noticing things like security cameras, escape routes, potential threats, etc. He does it almost subconsciously. It's also sort of a thing in the Bourne movies how he's always one step ahead of the people who are tracking him.

And, as we the viewers know, he's not wrong about that. Conklin made Marie and her car on the security footage. That means she's in danger whether she stays with Bourne or not, but at least if she stays with him, he can protect her. So, he insisted.

4
  • As far as I can remember, agents work alone
    – Rahn
    May 14, 2017 at 16:00
  • @Wentao I'm sure that's true under normal circumstances, but Bourne's situation, particularly in the first movie, is pretty far from normal. He doesn't even know who's side he's supposed to be on.
    – Steve-O
    May 14, 2017 at 22:52
  • @Wentao: Agents are only interested in completing the mission at all costs. Bourne, in this context, is also interested in keeping Marie alive. It's also somewhat of a recurring theme that Jason Bourne is not (no longer) an agent, although he still uses the skills of an agent when he needs to.
    – Flater
    May 15, 2017 at 12:17
  • It's plain speculation. Given this logic, Bourne now has to protect every person he engages with. Yet over the course of the movie, he engages with many people he doesn't protect afterward. For instance, in The Bourne Ultimatum, he doesn't stay with Nicky Parsons and sends her into hiding even though this time he knows for sure they'll try to kill her. Jan 12, 2021 at 17:09
2

The question confuses the actual turn of events and the characters' intentions. Bourne didn't insist, he offered her the choice because he recognized she doesn't want to leave him.

TL;DR

According to the script, Marie sees this relationship as more than just a gig, Jason doesn't.

                              MARIE
                   Jason...

        He turns back.  She's staring at him.

                             BOURNE
                   Sorry.  The money, right?

        Before she can say anything, he's digging in the backpack.
        He pulls out another stack of hundreds.  Hands it over.  She
        takes it.  It's not what she wanted, but she's used to being
        disappointed.  Fighting it.

He thanks for the ride and wants to go. Until he finally gets it.

                         MARIE
               Okay, so...

                         BOURNE
               Thanks for the ride.

                         MARIE
               Anytime.

    Silence.  That moment.  He focuses.  Getting it.

Getting that she doesn't want this to end. He realizes the danger and wants her to realize it too. She still wants to go with him because she thought he would forget her the moment they parted ways.

                         BOURNE
               Look, I don't know what's up there.

                         MARIE
               You got me pretty fucking curious.

                         BOURNE
               Look, you could come up.  Or you
               could wait if you want.  I could go
               check it out.  You could wait.

                         MARIE
               Nah...
                    (hide the pain)
               With you, I mean, you'd probably
               just forget about me, right?

At this moment he warned her twice she shouldn't go with him. Yet she ignored the warning and made her decision. He agrees.

                        BOURNE
               How could I forget about you?
                    (he smiles)
               You're the only person I know.

    MARIE smiles.  We've never seen it before.  Worth waiting for.

At this moment the relationship becomes romantic.

0

He had no intention of inviting her up and was saying his goodbyes until she offered him a ride "anytime ". He thought about it for a second and figured why not. After all a few scenes later we see he never forgot how to be a man.

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